Guessing game on who’s next to fall in China’s anti-graft drive is ‘meaningless’

A senior Chinese official whose remarks last year about disgraced former security tsar Zhou Yongkang propelled him to fame, said yesterday there was "no point" in speculating which "big tiger" would fall next.

"In the anti-corruption campaign … there is no upper limit and there is no [untouchable official]," Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference plenum spokesman Lu Xinhua told a Beijing press conference ahead of today's opening of the annual plenary meeting.

President Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-graft drive, worsening pollution and economic uncertainty are expected to be the focus of the major political event, during which the national legislature - the National People's Congress - will also start its full meeting on Thursday, with Premier Li Keqiang presenting his annual work report at a joint session of both bodies.

Lu, formerly the foreign ministry's top official in Hong Kong and also last year's plenum spokesman, spoke of the public and authorities' shared determination to wipe out graft. But he declined to speculate if more top cadres would be netted.

"But it is perfectly understandable that the public and media organisations believe that if bigger tigers do exist, they should be exposed," he said.

Shortly after Lu spoke, the PLA Daily announced that more than a dozen senior officers - including Guo Zhenggang , son of retired Central Military Commission vice-chairman Guo Boxiong - had been snared in the military's graft crackdown.

Last year, four state-level incumbent or retired officials - including Zhou and CPPCC vice-chairmen Ling Jihua and Su Rong - came under formal corruption investigations.